Chapter 16

Mr. Bell gave me a look and I excused myself to use the restroom. He'd promised to explain everything to me after our meeting and I believed him. It looked like Beth Ann and I were about to come in to a lot of money. It might take a few months but the handwriting was on the wall. We'd have to be careful to protect it, but I was willing to bet neither of us would ever need to work, again.

When I finished in the restroom, Mr. Bell and Mr. Hillman were still going at it hammer and tongs, so I took a seat at the lunch counter. Martha struck up a conversation with me and kept me entertained, while I kept an eye on Mr. Bell's progress with occasional peeks in the mirror. Things seemed pretty intense and I wasn't sorry to be out of the line of fire, especially since I was the reason for it, in the first place.

Eventually both men quieted down. Mr. Bell shared some notes from his legal pad and motioned for me to rejoin them. Taking my seat I waited for whatever came next.

Mr. Bell placed his hand on my arm and said, "Brian, Mr. Hillman and I have come to an arrangement concerning your accident. We will get our agreement in writing and then your mother and I will meet to see if it passes her examination. I believe it is an exceptional settlement and protects you for the rest of your life, while reimbursing you for the ways your life can never again be average, or normal.

"Mr. Hillman owns the truck that hit you and he has something to say to you." He turned to Mr. Hillman and waited.

"Son," he began. "First off, please accept my apology. You have no idea how sorry I am that our truck hurt you the way it did. Now we both know apologies are worthless, unless they are sincere and to prove to you that I am damn sincere - I hope your mother doesn't find I out how I talk, or she will send Jim back to scalp me again – I am putting my money where my mouth is.

"Your lawyer and I agreed to a settlement and even though it hurts like hell, you deserve every penny. The important thing is that you and your mother are healthy and that your future is secure. I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I didn't do right by you and as soon as our stop-loss, insurance carrier gets on board, we'll get this thing wrapped up.

"You have my word on that and I offer you my hand, in apology." He stood and waited for me to join him, then we shook it was almost a solemn handshake and I suddenly knew, he meant every word, from the bottom of his heart. That was good enough for me and I knew Mr. Bell had things well in hand, so I thanked him and Mr. Bell, assured them both that I fully accepted Mr. Hillman's apology and that I harbored had no bad feelings.

That seemed to satisfy them. Mr. Hillman shook hands again with us and left.

I stayed on my feet in case Mr. Bell was ready to take me back to work. He saw my hesitancy and waved to the chair, so I sat back down and waited. He seemed to be contemplating something, so I left him alone and concentrated on what was left of my lunch.

Eventually Mr. Bell looked up and said, "Brian – you handled that like a lawyer. I am so impressed that you only answered the exact question Hillman asked and didn't try to fill in any blanks. That's the sign of a well-trained, very well raised, and well behaved young man. You are to be congratulated.

"This business had to go just like it did, to make Hillman see he had no way out of this, short of an expensive trial which he would lose, spectacularly. Because you handled yourself so maturely, he caved in and agreed to everything I proposed.

"We'll have a settlement contract by this afternoon and Colleen and I will try to get together with you and your mother this evening, to go over the details. There will be one big delay and that is getting the stop loss carrier all the way on board. Stop Loss is a type of insurance that insures the insurance company, for losses over a certain amount. Mr. Hillman is self-insured, which means he pays his own small and medium sized claims, then he buys a policy to cover any losses over that amount.